Eclipse Phase: Through the Looking Glass [System] [Interest Check]

[Blythe]

The EP slogan and ethos:

Your mind is software. Program it.
Your body is a shell. Change it.
Death is a disease. Cure it.
Extinction is approaching. Fight it!

I finally got an interest check up for this. And it only took me just a shade less longer than forever! I am extremely excited to finally be ready to GM something like this! ;D

Check out the World Building thread for more deets on this, but I'll also give a quick blurb here so people can decide if this would interest them at a first glance. Post here if you're interested, and feel free to ask questions. I'm still doing some editing over in World Building, but the thread as-is is pretty close to where I want it.

- Uses the Eclipse Phase tabletop system. At least a little light familiarity might be needed to play. If you are new to EP but want to try anyways: The tabletop rpg Eclipse Phase is available legally for free under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. You can acquire the PDFs here. You need at least the core rulebook to play. I do really recommend the Gatecrashing book and the Transhuman book, though.
- This would be placed over in [EX] because of synths, uplifts, etc., just in case.
- Player Characters are proxies or Sentinels for Firewall, and they are members of a Firewall server called G-OP. They are tasked on Project LOOKINGGLASS and focused on Gatecrashing through the Fissure Gate. What will they be investigating first? Penrose Station!
- Using EP rules. Would rather not use FATE rules. I know that makes this system-heavy, but I'm okay with that.
- Taking up to 6 players, not first-come first-serve.
- Point-buy or creating someone using the Transhuman rules--both are fine. No Neotenics or Lost Generation, please. Do not start with any Psi (Psi might come up later in the game...).
- I highly encourage you having @-rep. Or at least i-rep.
- Specifically, read "Rules and Requirements" and "FAQ" in the World Building thread for a detailed idea of what I want for the game.
- Slow posting speed. I'm slower than molasses in winter, but I'm jonesing for about 1/week posts, roughly. I'm not going to have a cow if people can't make that speed. Plus, slow posting speed makes it easier for me to handle EP's heavier system.
- I have no requirements for post length. I find this sort of requirement tends to bog down system games. Post what you feel is "right."
- New to GMing EP, so bear with me. I've played once, but I've actually been pretty excited about trying my hand as a GM. EP's a favorite tabletop of mine.
- There's a lot to slog through in my world building thread, I know, but ask questions if you have them!
- Character sheets should be PMed to me. Do not post them in-thread. Feel free to discuss concepts/ideas, but sheets themselves should go to my PM box.

Update:

- When thinking of a background, all you need to know is that the individual responsible for bringing your character into G-OP and onto Project LOOKINGGLASS is Arvind Vemulakonda, a Firewall Scanner/Router originally from India before the Fall who is currently in a Takko morph (but who may not have been in a Takko morph when you met!). No one should know him particularly well--nothing more than being acquainted. I have deliberately left Arvind otherwise vague, and you can otherwise have free reign with how your character met Arvind and how Arvind got them to Chat Noir.



Approved players (3/6 slots filled):
- Riveda (Background: Scumborn, Faction: Scum, Morph: Crasher)
- Angiejuusan (Background: Infolife, Faction: Hypercorp, Morph: Synth)
- ChaoticSky (Background: Drifter, Faction: Ultimates, Morph: Fury)

[Angie]

A star screams through the sky before slamming into this thread

DID SOMEONE SAY EP?! I AM TOTALLY IN!

[Rook Seidhr]

I have a character idea I've tried to play about a zillion times but games keep dying on me…I'll PM you because he has some secrets and I don't know how you want to handle secrets among players.

[Blythe]

*waves to Angie* Heyla Angie!  ;D

And sure, Riveda, PM me the character, and I'll review it. I'm not sure how I want to handle secrets among players/PCs just yet, though, so maybe reading a sheet that deals with that will give me an idea of how I'd like to.

[Angie]

We will have female Synths. I love female Synths. And I really don't like FATE so I'm really happy we get to play with all the rules :3

[Rook Seidhr]

* Your science is wrong! Fix?

JSYK, quantum entanglement communicators are pseudoscience, not possible IRL—see the no-cloning theorem.

I do not expect you to ban them due to their bullshit nature; they're good for RP. I just want to make it clear that psi is not the only form of magic in EP.

[Blythe]

no-cloning theorem.

My science-fu is never going to be good enough to explain/handle anything like that in a roleplay in heavy detail.  :P

I just want to make it clear that psi is not the only form of magic in EP.

I'm aware of this--my feelings about Psi in particular stem from the time I was a player in an EP game in RL. I don't necessarily mind that Psi is pretty much "magic with science flavor," I just want it to be more than that, if you get my meaning? Psi's got so much potential for personal horror. ^^

Plus I may or may not have Psi plothooks that make me want players to not start with Psi >_>

[Rook Seidhr]

I don't necessarily mind that Psi is pretty much "magic with science flavor," I just want it to be more than that, if you get my meaning? Psi's got so much potential for personal horror. ^^

Yiss…

[ReijiTabibito]

Question.  If we're focused on Gatecrashing, then will X-rep be a suitable replacement for @-rep?

Where's Izayoi, I know I need to dig her up...

[Blythe]

Question.  If we're focused on Gatecrashing, then will X-rep be a suitable replacement for @-rep?

Where's Izayoi, I know I need to dig her up...

X-rep is also suitable for getting Gate access, but it won't replace @-rep. Oberon/Chat Noir will feature as a setting when active gatecrashing ops aren't happening or when characters are in 'downtime,' so @-rep will still be important. X-rep won't help with most things on Chat Noir other than things pertaining to the Fissure Gate.

[ReijiTabibito]

Right.  X-rep for gate-oriented stuff. @ for normal, everyday things.

Anything special we need to know about making characters?

[Angie]

So I'm thinking of using the Synth I built for a game that didn't pick up, she was an AI that was created after a series of unfortunate accidents lead to the death of an AI dev's daughter-and then he disappeared and took all her memories of him with him. She might be interested in working with Firewall in an effort to find her Creator...

[Blythe]

Anything special we need to know about making characters?

- No Neotenics or Lost Generation. No starting with Psi.
- You may use the standard starting point buy (as on pg. 130 of the core rulebook) or use Transhuman's random method of generation (and be required to roll on the Gatecrashing and Firewall tables). I recommend the former, of course, for anyone with a strong concept already in mind or someone already familiar with EP.
- You may have either a Firewall Agent package or a Gatecrasher's Pack starting out--your choice, which will have been "loaned" to your character by Firewall. (Items in these are detailed in the Firewall blurb in World Building).
- When thinking of a background, all you need to know is that the individual responsible for bringing your character into G-OP and onto Project LOOKINGGLASS is Arvind Vemulakonda, a Firewall Scanner/Router originally from India before the Fall who is currently in a Takko morph (although he may not have been in a Takko morph when you met!). No one should know him particularly well--nothing more than being acquainted. I have deliberately left Arvind otherwise vague, and you can otherwise have free reign with how your character met Arvind and how Arvind got them to Chat Noir. (I should really put this one in the first post, and I'm going to scuttle off to do that now. >_> )

So I'm thinking of using the Synth I built for a game that didn't pick up, she was an AI that was created after a series of unfortunate accidents lead to the death of an AI dev's daughter-and then he disappeared and took all her memories of him with him. She might be interested in working with Firewall in an effort to find her Creator...

This is an interesting concept--I think the "finding the Creator" plothook is a good one that I could incorporate into the game. :)

[Angie]

I will admit it was a very strained series of events that resulted in the original person this AI is based on not being able to come back, so at this point I may just try to justify it with "Shut up, do you want character drama or not?" Though I do have a very long backstory on the CREATOR if you're interested...

[Blythe]

I will admit it was a very strained series of events that resulted in the original person this AI is based on not being able to come back, so at this point I may just try to justify it with "Shut up, do you want character drama or not?" Though I do have a very long backstory on the CREATOR if you're interested...

Drop me a PM with the info, and we'll see if it's workable for this particular game. ^^

[ReijiTabibito]

Okay.  Question for the room.  Does Bodysculpting like you do stuff like animal-ear, or anthropomorphic?  Or...what's your rule on how that works?

[Muse]

*pounce!!!* 

May I play? 

[Angie]

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=147905

This is the old sheet I have, I may tweak it a little depending on what comes up-especially Reps. The Reps were picked for the campaign that never was, any recommendations for this one?

[wander]

Holding post because interest peaked!

[Blythe]

Okay.  Question for the room.  Does Bodysculpting like you do stuff like animal-ear, or anthropomorphic?  Or...what's your rule on how that works?

Just minor things like ears, maybe a cute tail, nifty eyes, or little claws? Nah, that's not anthro to me.

I'd only say that's going an anthro route if it affects the nose/mouth, excessive changing of genitals, excessive changing of hands or legs, etc.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=147905

This is the old sheet I have, I may tweak it a little depending on what comes up-especially Reps. The Reps were picked for the campaign that never was, any recommendations for this one?

I'll give this a read-over in the next couple of days. :)

@ Muse and wander: happy to see you! Would love to see what sorts of concepts you're thinking of playing!

[Angie]

Blythe, feel free to PM me and ask questions, though be prepared for at least a few "Ummm" and "Ehhh" and "seemed like a good idea?" Cause this was months ago, I barely fuckin' remember what I was doing.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

I am always, ALWAYS down for an Eclipse Phase run. I just hope it doesn't crash and burn! It's rather rules-heavy for most people around here, and some of the rules are a little difficult to handle in forum-play (like some of the options for using moxie to affect rolls), but I've played a couple of tabletop and online campaigns to the vicious, bioweapon and nano-swarm-laden end.

A Gatecrashing team is a nice way to handle an online game, particularly at a slow posting rate, IMHO. It has the benefit of launching a party who have reasons to work together straight into potential danger, kind of like starting a fantasy game at the entrance to the dungeon.

Fairly nice summation of EP's setting in your world-forum, btw. Kudos.

- 3rd person past tense writing for this game, please.

Might we also agree to try to reserve the word "would" for things the character wants (i.e., "would like"), the past tense of will ("He said he would be back in an hour.") or something one considered doing in the past tense but did not actually do (i.e., "I would have helped, but I realized I'd just get in the way")?

When I read "NAME would go through the door and would smile at the other characters." My literal English brain interprets it as "...but they didn't actually do so."

It's just a thing I see in a lot of online roleplaying that makes my history-professor-self twitch.

- Standard 1000 CP point-buy or use Transhuman's random character generation. You must have the Transhuman book to do the latter. The latter will sometimes have balance issues with compared to a standard 1000 CP point-buy, but if you're willing to run that risk, go ahead.

As you point out, the Transhuman system is not strictly balanced to the Core Rules CP point buy system. On p.13 of Transhuman it points out that:

Note that this package system builds characters
that are worth 1,100 CP. This is ~20 CP more than
characters built using the system in the Eclipse
Phase Core Rulebook (when factoring in the free
points and background/faction bonuses). If you
want it to be completely balanced with the core
rulebook, simply remove 20 CP of skills or other
attributes from each character created with this
system. Alternatively, if some people in your
group are using this package system and others
are using the system from the core book, give the
latter players an extra 20 CP for their characters
to make it even.

You may wish to permit characters made with Core rules generation to use 1,020CP if TH chargen is being permitted.

Yes, I know, it's only a 20CP difference...Just enough to buy a couple of aptitude points, a fairly decent spare Morph, or a Plasma Rifle. ;D

The only other suggestion I would make is that the party be purely Sentinels. Proxies are supposed to be far more 'aware' of the grand scheme of Firewall, and they make a good remote 'command level.' They're also dangerous for Firewall to put at risk because they have that additional knowledge. A captured Sentinel whose Ego is chipped into a hellbox can only turn on zer immediate cell (and maybe not even them, in a high security where zee might only know them by Firewall codenames and know nothing of their 'civilian' lives) but a captured Proxy could potentially burn several Cells or even major Firewall operations/caches.

Additionally, I find that in a horror-based game (which you seem deliciously interested in running) the less the player characters know about the big picture, the more shadows exist for them to jump at, and the more out-of-control things begin to feel.

TL;DR - Knowledge is power. Ignorance is terrifying. ;D Proxies know too much.

[Blythe]

@Angie: I'll think of some questions to send your way. ^^

@Carnival: I won't restrict the use of the word 'would,' mostly as it's not been a problem in games I've been in. If it comes up, I can evaluate it then, but since I won't have a posting length minimum, I like to think 'would' won't pop up so much.

As far as chargen, so far, no one has said they'll be using TH's rules. I'm seeing some faces here from folks that seem to be a bit more familiar with EP. If someone does, I'll read up what they roll, determine if the power is over or under, and determine points from there for those who used standard. (For those wondering, I'm more likely to toss points at a TH chargen that's underpowered than I am to put standard chargen under 1000)

I'm very open to the Sentinels-only idea--no one has proposed making a Proxy yet anyway. I'm more than happy to go the "Sentinel-only" route if that's what players want, but I'd like to hear from others about the idea before committing to this. I like your logic for it. :)

[Rook Seidhr]

I agree with the idea of a Sentinels-only game.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Quick character summation:

Světlana (Světka) (Somatek-Biopreparat C.Corax 80P0H4-V4r0n4) Botched Uplift, Raven, occasionally behaves somewhat feral and can't read most transhuman kinesics or social cues for a damn. However, since the point of the experiment at the time was to leverage reflexes and intuition for piloting strike/drone-tender vehicles, and because she excelled in terms of twitch-reflexes, combat awareness and intuitive 3d-maneuver-spatial cognizance, she was sent to the back of the line rather than just dissected to figure out why things didn't take.

She was deployed experimentally in a series of brushfire conflicts, then again during the Fall when everything went nuts with the TITANs. She has been killed many, many times and reinstantiated many, many times... Occasionally with continuity, sometimes with vivid awareness of recent death when her stack was recovered and her experience was deemed 'worth keeping to hone her skills', and sometimes with just...Nothing.

She's a good-hearted bird, even a fairly clever bird, but on a certain level she's really, really...A bird. Her emoting is liable to be feral enough to embarrass other neo-avian uplifts. Her ability to track conversation and participate correctly is somewhat poor (she doesn't mean to be rude, she just doesn't grasp little things like...When to talk, or what politeness is, much less what subtlety is). In many ways, her Muse is smarter and more socially savvy than she is. Then again, this is all in comparison to Transhuman values. A COG & SAV of 10 in human terms is entirely adequate and average...for a Flat (she is roughly average smart and average savvy for a "Joe Normal" human being...But posthumans are expected to be smarter than that!). Even so, she's quite well-trained.

If you imagine Kehaar stuffed into a synthetic stealth-attack bird and accompanied by a small 'wing' of drone companions, you'll have some idea of how I intend to roleplay her...

I saw that we're required to present an Eclipse Phase writing sample. I got a little bit carried away. Please excuse the somewhat stylized approach...It's a character history parsed as a sort of 'present-tense stream of consciousness,' but it's a broken stream...The available memories of a Phoenix (Eclipse Phase slang for someone who has died and been reinstantiated so many times that they have become blasé about it).

"Světlana Awakens"

Světlana awakens to day 451 in Laboratoriya 319, which Doctor Mikhailovich, her handler, and the other the scientists always call "the Rookery"...but she and her sisters are not supposed to call it that. This is confusing, but as life goes on Světlana realizes that she is expected to act differently from others, and that she and her sisters are not expected to act like humans. Except when they are. Which is confusing.

Světlana awakens. Life is testing, always testing, and she is supposed to match the patterns which flash on her screen and highlight them, but the AR from her terminal is not right. It is not right and it was not right yesterday and occasionally there are little flickers in the lower right corner of the pattern test which are distracting. But today she noticed that the flicker was repeating itself predictably. She had overheard one of the tekhniki say that repeatable problems were much easier to solve than those which came and go. She was trying to focus on the test but also on the flicker, when the flicker, for just a moment, seemed to match the test pattern. And if she was right it would do it again in 17.4 seconds. She kept her visual cursor over the marker, watching the timing run down. Most of her sisters avoided her now, because her scores were so low. She was constantly being distracted by things. Things like patterns where others did not see them or did not care to notice, or flickers that were often meaningless. She clicked the flicker and the pattern matched and she moved on to the next one, but none of the flickering matched after that. It upset her handler later, but she was not punished. Apparently her sisters were expected to click it, not her. Světlana gets into a fight with one of her sisters at mealtime because she is given the reward food and her sisters are sure it is a mistake. The next day the flicker happens again, and her handler is even more upset this time because Světlana remembers the fight and does not click on it. Her handler is frustrated. Světlana is frustrated. Apparently her handler had been almost convinced that she was a "failure," but this new ability for "pattern recognition" is better than her sisters. Her handler, Doctor Mikhailovich, is made uncomfortable because Světlana is neither "a failure" nor "optimal." Doctor Mikhailovich does not know what she is. Her sisters do not know what she is. Světlana does not know what she is. She pulls several of her feathers loose while preening and Doctor Mikhailovich yells at her. Doctor Mikhailovich says he does not know what to do with her. Her sleep is troubled.

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens and Doctor Mikhailovich is gone, and her new handler is Doctor Yur'yevna. Doctor Yur'yevna shows her slides of non-specialized ravens or of humans and asks how she is feeling and what the ravens and the humans in the pictures are feeling. The pictures are uninteresting, and Světlana does not know what Doctor Yur'yevna wants her to say about them, but Světlana decides that she likes Doctor Yur'yevna, because Doctor Yur'yevna never seems frustrated and never gets upset or angry at her. Doctor Mikhailovich is gone and Doctor Yur'yevna will not discuss it. The pattern-matching test is much harder today, it is the same test that Světlana's sisters have been working on for the past two weeks, but Světlana does not remember the past two weeks. She has slept through them, somehow, until Doctor Yur'yevna decided to wake her. This is a flying test, but in the test Světlana does not truly fly, she only thinks she flies and sees that she is flying, but she knows that when they turn off the machine she will still be in the Laboratoriya. There is more pattern-matching but instead of indicating patterns, she is supposed to simply adjust her flight based on what she notices, whether they are unindexed trees, towers or power lines or enemy radars or surface-to-air-missile-launchers. Světlana's time for the course is slower than her sisters, because she goes slightly off the course to avoid the known detection range of the inferred launchers which she does not see but which she assumes are there based on the ones which she has seen, because she remembers the pattern that type of launcher is usually deployed in. She is the slowest to finish the course, but many with faster times were "detected." She gets the reward food again.

A few hundred sleeps pass.

<Discontinuity>

Světlana is awakened by Tekhnik Pavel, who insists that he is not her handler. She is not in the Laboratoriya but in a large building ("hangar"). Her muse Sashka, who she has secretly named after Doctor Yur'yevna (whose other name she is not supposed to know) talks to the Tekhnik while Světlana tries to flex her wings and preen her feathers, which itch, but finds she cannot move, which is a bit frightening. Sashka reassures her and tells her that she is an aircraft now (Sashka notifies her that she is a "Sukhoi-Douglas SuD 219E"), like some of the other aircraft in the hangar. This is a bit confusing and troublesome, but the technik is there to make sure she feels all right, and Sashka and the technik go down a list of tests which Světlana only participates in by sometimes trying to lift one wing or another, to turn her head, to flap, or to try to pick up things near her feet when the technik requests that she do these things. None of this feels quite right and she cannot quite flap or see her wings. There is also a set of calibrations which remind her of her first AR when she was a nestling, and she has to list the colors and sounds she hears, as well as sensations like itchiness or sometimes small pains. There are two kinds of planes in the hangar, and most of her sisters are in a different kind from the one which is Světlana (Sashka helpfully tags them as "Sukhoi-HAL FG130s"). While Sashka and the technik talk, Světlana notices Sashka has flagged an internal file on the plane type which she occupies and so she reads it in case there will be a test on it later, memorizing range and deployment details of homing anti-radiation missiles (she is carrying twelve) as well as ECM enemy air-defense suppression systems (forty-two).

Later, Světlana's handler finally arrives. He is handler for the whole flock today, and is named Polkovnik Michurin. Michurin gives the rest of the flock instructions based on data which they have but which Světlana does not, then comes over to talk to Světlana and the others in their smaller group of aircraft. Světlana notices that the majority of the flock do not carry homing anti-radiation missiles under their wings, nor enemy air-defense suppression systems. The majority of the flock will be Eskadra 1 grupa 1. All but two of the remainder of the flock will be grupa 2, and just Světlana and Marika will be grupa 3. Světlana is slightly pleased to be paired with Marika. She and Marika understand each other better than the others, and often have similar troubles and tasks. The Polkovnik explains after the other have left that she and Marika will be flying a different route, to draw off the enemy so that her sisters can sneak past. Světlana is told that a final backup of her mind is made before they launch --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens and her handler is tekhnik Stakhanov. She remembers locating and relaying coordinates of enemy air defense stars outside of New Delhi, and cautioning Marika several times about suppressed LIDAR and terahertz radar systems which Marika apparently did not notice. She remembers that she unloaded all of her HARM missiles onto the westmost stars to trick the enemy controllers into thinking that the majority of the incursion would follow the path down the valley they protected. Marika had suggested they check to see how the rest of their sisters were doing, and so Světlana had set their course, dropping so low that they were unable to maintain communications but also they could not be tracked at all by enemy ground systems slower than an eyeball. She remembers seeing that Grupa 1 and 2 were in grave difficulty, and cutting over to their channel even though she was supposed to maintain silence. She had assessed the number of missiles in the air defense stars which remained, then had carefully gone in and out, in and out, drawing fire and dodging the predictable missile-brains until the ground batteries were empty and would require at least a three minute reloading procedure during which her sisters could escape. She remembers a terrible burning sensation in her wings and tail, and far, far too many massive systems failure alerts, so she began trying to solve the most critical ones first, and she remembers the ground rising up to meet her quite suddenly. Polkovnik Michurin has a great deal to say to her personally, but she has difficulty paying attention to it due to remembered pain (phantom pain, Doctor Yur'yevna will inform her later during a reward meal). She thinks the Polkovnik likes her at first but also hates her. He tells her that she did well, but that the mission was a failure. Světlana does not understand how the mission can be a failure if she has done well. Světlana risks telling Doctor Yur'yevna that the Polkovnik is frustrating and she does not understand why he is both happy and unhappy, and Doctor Yur'yevna informs her that she will probably not see the Polkovnik again. Doctor Yur'yevna is right, but Světlana never sees her again, either, which makes her unhappy --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens and Doctor Riihijarvi is her handler. There is a great deal to study, because much has changed, a sentence which he tells her repeatedly without actually telling her exactly what has changed. Doctor Riihijarvi talks strangely, and she is informed that he is speaking English. Světlana did not speak English before she went to sleep, but she understands it now because that information has been "uploaded" while she slept. With Sashka's help she finds Doctor Riihijarvi as easy to talk to as anyone else. The tests are more complicated now, and she is required to fly her own course while also assigning tasks to and sometimes manually overriding a set of drones which will be carried to the target area under her wings, much as the missiles were the day before (Doctor Riihijarvi and her muse Sashka both insist that it was not the day before). She is confused, but she manages the tests, solving them in part using tricks which she remembers seeing her smarter sisters using when the air defense test at New Delhi became difficult. It makes Doctor Riihijarvi uncomfortable when she refers to the event at New Delhi as a test, and he has Sashka download and discuss 'the Battle of Seventh Shimla' with her --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens and is sleeved (this is a new word which Sashka flags for her attention) in a Type 413 Saab-Dassault Aerospatiale Superiority Fighter carrying Standard Loadout Four (parameters and mission-critical information carefully appended and annotated by Sashka). Her handler is Capitaine Duvalier. Sashka has been upgraded and carefully and patiently explains to her that the aircraft can fly and turn in ways much faster than anything else she has ever been in, then runs her through a series of simulations, including, much to Světlana's distaste, a very familiar-feeling test involving the partial loss of wing and tail control surfaces at low altitude. This test has two optional parameters, 'escape/RTB' and 'mission completion.' Světlana only runs the mission completion version, because she remembers how unhappy Polkovnik Michurin had been about the lack of mission completion, and she argues with Sashka for some while that she believes the choice of 'escape/RTB' is a test itself, and one she should not take. In the end, she tries to peck at Sashka, which never works because while she can see Sashka, Sashka is not really there, but this action does make Sashka aware of how irritable she is. The mission is short and involves defending the perimeter of "the Beanstalk" (flagged file, unimportant except as obstacle) by any and all means necessary except entering the no-fly zone (flagged file, urgent) within which friendly forces will interdict her flightpath to avoid possible damage to the Beanstalk. The enemy is unidentified, but is estimated to primarily consist of drones which will make turns well in excess of non-synth-sleeved pilots (flagged file, unimportant except for energy-vector maneuver transformation notes) --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens to dreams of flight around the Beanstalk and of being on fire (edited to minimize pain). She remembers making a poor choice which compromised her airframe utterly by interposing it between a hostile drone and one of the moving objects on the beanstalk (Sashka tags this object "elevator car" and informs her that it contained almost a thousand "civilians." This worries Světlana; she remembers that she is not supposed to go near "civilians."). Her cortical stack was retrieved from the armor of the elevator car in which part of her plane had been embedded by the enemy impact because this action constituted "heroic behavior." Sashka upsets her by dumping an entire new set of parameters of air density and gravitic change on her. It is eleven days since the fight at the Beanstalk (but it feels like she has slept less than an hour) and she has been uploaded and transmitted to a new location (Mars), where there is yet another Beanstalk and a place called Qurain. Three-dimensional maps are downloaded, updated in realtime for local weather conditions of ridiculously low pressure, and Světlana is "backed up" before mission briefing commences --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens and remembers skimming down the slope of an immense mountain (map ID: Olympus Mons). The atmosphere is so painfully thin that she is barely getting any ground-effect lift even though she is flying so low that her LIDAR is having to warn her of rocks having more than 1m standard deviation height and her engines are alerting to dust-density constantly. The fire and pain has been edited out, but her memories of the day halt abruptly with the awareness that she has nowhere left to go. There are enemy drones of unfamiliar design to either side of her and above her. Out of speed, out of energy, and out of height with which to generate speed or energy, she angrily flares all of her feathers and suddenly rolls, lunging into one of the enemy drones, the ground whirling around her as she hammers her opponent into it. Sashka informs her that the previously unknown enemy has now been designated "TITAN" (files appended) --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens and is assigned to doing low-level reconnaissance around an area designated "The White Zone" which her prior mapping experience colocates to what was previously Qurain. Several weeks pass. Flying on Mars is disappointing; the air is so thin that she cannot soar, cannot dance, cannot do much beyond maximize glide-surface area. Besides, the sensors she carries work best with a stabilized platform, so she traverses the Zone multiple times daily, travelling sulkily straight lines which are unbearable to the part of her which remembers how much emphasis was placed on evasive tactics and how quickly predictability leads to mission failure and punishment --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens in the dark and has no body. Sashka explains that she is in a machine, just like the other machines she has been sleeved in, but she cannot feel it. It is not that kind of machine. Not like the aerospacial control or ground attack aircraft. Everything in her interface looks like old cartoons from the Rookery. Flying is pointless and unsatisfying because she cannot feel the wind. She just moves. She is told that she was shot down in the Zone, but the memories are not available. She is assigned to piloting transport drones remotely when they encounter difficulty during dust storms. Her handler is "Mike, just Mike." This job bothers Světlana. She can not truly feel the flow of the air like she could when she was "sleeved." The transports she flies are only those already in trouble, and often they are turned over to her control after losing much altitude. The static caused by the dust-laden wind makes telemetry bad. Transports are lost and her handler is angry. She explains that it is impossible to renegotiate the energy-speed-height curve with gravity once it passes a point of no return and he becomes angrier, so she threatens to peck him, although she is not sure how to do that in the machine --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens and finds she has been "rescued" from "slavery." Her body does not feel quite as it should, but Sashka "makes adjustments" for her. She is in a crow's body, not a raven's body or an aircraft. While it is pleasant to feel the currents of air on every feather and frill, some of the other biological body-processes are no longer so welcome, and she dreams often of being a Type 413 Saab-Dassault Aerospatiale Superiority Fighter carrying Standard Loadout Four, even though Standard Loadout Four increases energy expenditures and causes a seven-percent reduction in her maneuverability envelope. It feels more like it belongs to her than the crow's body does. It is a pleasing dream and memory, because when she was a Type 413 Saab-Dassault Aerospatiale Superiority Fighter carrying Standard Loadout Four she did something "heroic" which is even better than "optimal" or "satisfactory" and is far, far from being a "failure." Světlana does not have a handler, here, or a commander, polkovnik, or boss. There is a parrot named Abernathy, who is a "counselor," but he is mostly concerned about what she wants to do with her life. This is very important to Abernathy for some reason. She wants to fly. Well, he says, so do we all. She asks what her mission is, but missions are a difficult subject here, and Abernathy always comes back to the same question. What does she want to do? What does she want to do? She tires of hearing him ask, and ends up sleeving various repair drones, because this lets her fly, a little, in the strange gravitationless space beyond the Locus station, when she is on her way from one place to another which needs maintenance. It is different and interesting, but she wants to feel the wind on her wings.

Abernathy and Sashka inform her of another place, Mahogany, where birds have room to fly, but although some of her sisters are there they do not respond to her messages and do not want to talk to her. Abernathy does not like to talk to her, either. None of the few other birds she meets in this place like to talk to her and neither do the humans, the monkeys, or even the machines. She is "a poor conversationalist." She is able to get away with one thing that she could not do in the Rookery...She talks to Sashka and lets Sashka talk to people. Sashka explains to her that she has "a problematic reputation." She has many good successes in her past, but she is still considered a failure because of her inability to speak well and understand others well. This is why other birds don't like her. On Mars, she was a "hero," but this is not Mars. She is a "failure." That is her reputation. And reputation means much, here...

Světlana awakens to alarms, alarms, alarms and a call for "anyone, anyone at all who is a combat-experienced pilot." Světlana responds and is sleeved into a "cobbled-together" (Sashka informers her that this is not a model or make but a description) drone tender and Sashka mediates for her in a crash-course on zero-gravity tactics and strategy being taught remotely by a handler named Teilhard Liu. It is not clear if Teilhard Liu is higher in rank than a Polkovnik, although Sashka notes that in the past he was an "Air Marshal." Světlana likes listening to Liu. Liu is straightforward and makes his expectations clear. Světlana can remember few commanders who have made their desires so clear. Světlana asks to be backed up after the tactical course because by now she has learned why her memory works the way it does, why sometimes she forgets things and things happen to her that she does not remember when she awakens, so that others have to tell her or show her what she did. She decides that she wants to remember this --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens with no memory of the First or the Second Battle of Locus, but there are records and recordings from other ships and Locus Space Control which show her how she participated. She is pleased to see that during the battle she remembered what Liu had to say, including remembering that self-sacrifice was only an equipment expenditure to a backed-up ego. After emptying her missile racks, she traded her drone tender for a frigate over a hundred and fifty times her mass by using her drones as an ablative shield to provide cover from the enemy ship's guns while she corkscrewed in and impacted the enemy frigate's engine spine at the highest velocity she could achieve by red-limit burning her available fuel. Recordings show that the impact severed the frigate's magnetic containment vessel, which failed to properly shut down and resulted in "a significant AM detonation." Světlana believes that Teilhard Liu would approve of her trading a forty-ton drone-tender for a six-thousand-ton frigate, but, although she asks Sashka to compose a message to him, he never answers her.

However, she soon afterward does receive an invitation to do work flying for an Extropian company called Medusan Shield. Ego broadcast costs paid, and with guaranteed financial reimbursement as well as the possibility of improving her reputation (Světlana finds that her reputation has noticeably increased after the Second Battle of Locus as "the bird who took out the frigate Walter Morgan"). The work is good, a mixture of what she did in the early days of her life at Somatek-Biopreparat, and what she was doing on Mars. It is mostly recon, with occasional elements of combative strike. She uses every trick she can think of to do her job well. Repeated financial reimbursement for missions eventually leads to the option to buy a better form, but there will be delays until it is ready. Her sisters on Mahogany still do not answer her. Sashka handles her contracts and finances, and Světlana finds time to fly, even when she has to rent craft to do it in. She can "afford" to do that now. It is pleasant to have choices, to decide what to fly and where to fly it.

Wrapping up a security detail to escort a courier to Gatekeeper, Světlana finds herself offered the opportunity to go extra-solar; there are a variety of openings through local Medusan Shield representation to do escort-duty on Gatecrashing expeditions. Světlana has Sashka sign her up for the necessary auxiliary training courses, and within two weeks sees her first alien sky...And
flies it. Gatecrashing suits her. The people who do so are often socially irregular. They deal with her as well as anyone has. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't, but their needs are for solid results, and Světlana is an excellent recon flyer and drone-handler. Connections Sashka managed through the Gatecrashing community get her a Search-and-Rescue role on an emergency retrieval team operating out of Portal, and while not all of her rescues are successful (she has been extracted out of her own failed extraction operations more than once...Extraction operations are dangerous by definition), the little AR flash marking her to ExploreNet followers as a dedicated on-call Recovery specialist gets her a lot of social leeway at Chat Noir, Gateway, and aboard the Lost in Neverwhere. People do not seem to mind so much when she has trouble talking or listening. Being "Recovery" is something like being "a hero," and Světlana likes it.

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens in the depths of Europa, and flies ("swims" Sashka insists, but it feels like flying) through thick, dense liquid, armed with supercavitating torpedoes to guard the interests of an archaelogical group. Her patrolling is cut short when something like the TITAN drones she fought before emerges from inside the dig and attacks those she seeks to protect. She is ordered to destroy the dig by one of those within --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens in orbit over Chat Noir, and is informed that her co-workers are "Firewall" and that she is also now "Firewall." This is very secret, and is not to be discussed, but it is also very important. It means support, and it means danger, and it means freedom. It means she is responsible for protecting everyone, all of the time, whether she is paid or not, whether she is sleeved for battle or not, but it also means having to choose sometimes to let some die so that others can be saved. Světlana approves of this. It is what Teilhard Liu taught. Sometimes an objective is worth sacrificing for, and the objective here is the survival of the future of all Transhumanity. She worries sometimes about the scale of the objective. Sashka has projected numerous maps, Solar and Extrasolar. It is a vast area to protect, and every battle she has ever fought looks small beside it, but Světlana will only be responsible for small portions, wherever she may be --

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens on a resleeving slab at Portal, and knows she is missing something, like the gap left by a plucked feather before a new one grows, even though this body has no feathers --

<Discontinuity>

...Awakens on a resleeving slab at Gateway --

<Discontinuity>

...Awakens at Chat Noir --

<Discontinuity>

...Awakens in a virtual meadow where a Firewall Proxy is updating her team of "Sentinels" on a new mission. The virtual meadow has no simulated air currents. Světlana reflexively plays back the last few minutes of recorded discussion at high speed while Sashka annotates and simplifies it for her on the fly, and her aerobatic prediction software creates a model of the breezes the meadow should have based on the approximate radiance and position of the sun, some mountains on the horizon, and the available local contour mapping provided by the virtual reality simulation. Sashka parses the briefing into straightforward and simple instruction sets and rules of engagement, while Světlana plots maximum glide-time paths through the thermal updrafts which the simulation should have, but does not.

<Discontinuity>

...Awakens in her "own" body (or one of the same design) on a perch in the Enemy Mine, having drifted off to sleep as some other Gatecrasher talked and talked and talked about what had really been a simple rescue mission, in Světlana's opinion --

<Discontinuity>

...Awakens on Mahogany, and hears and feels thousands of other birds around her, but also feels the air currents rebounding from distant walls. The birds here have mostly abandoned the names humans gave them. Most of their names are about the sky, especially things the sky of Mahogany does not have. After listening to one too many "Lost-Sunset-Never-Ending" named birds talking about her human name, Světlana declares that she has a thousand new skies beyond the Gates that she can fly in, and misses nothing. Mahogany is no replacement for the open skies of the worlds beyond the Gates. Světlana decides she hates it, and has Sashka arrange her return to Chat Noir.

<Discontinuity>

...Awakens under alien skies, perched on an anchored fixor among the branches of a thing like a tree if trees were made out of crystallized steam. Her new body is slower, but is stealthier and more maneuverable than the Type 413 Saab-Dassault Aerospatiale Superiority Fighter in which she counter-kamikaziied an inbound TITAN war-machine. Světlana has wings that can flap, guidance vanes she can stretch like her feathers of old, eyes and other senses that see incredible things, while nothing can see her unless she wants it to. Around her, her drones slowly dance, updating her with status reports.

<Discontinuity>

...Awakens in a Gatecrasher's bar on the Lost in Neverwhere, where the other Retrievers at her corner booth are comparing how many times they have died, on a bet. Světlana does not know how many times she has died. Sashka does not know, either, but no one at the table believes Sashka's minimum estimate. No one else comes close. The biologicals drink heavily and stare at her and she shifts uncomfortably on her perch.

<Discontinuity>

Světlana awakens.

There are days I should not be allowed near a word processor.

[Blythe]

@ Carnival: Writing sample is only required for those using Transhuman chargen/randomly rolling. For those using point-buy, I just want to see a concept.

Will read over what you've written of Světka, though. :)

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

The TL;DR version is Botched Uplift, Phoenix, Killer Instinct, Situational Awareness, TacNet Sniper, Edited Memories, Poorly Socialized (not the silly murderhobo RPG "look, I'm psycho!" version of Poorly Socialized one might expect from a super-weapon reject, but rather a "shy and lacking social skills, has trouble fitting in or feeling part of a group" Poorly Socialized) raven uplift from a Pre-Fall Soviet super-pilot program whose entire life has been a succession of being iced, thawed out again in emergencies, installed in combat aircraft or spacecraft more often than morph bodies, and who has died and been brought back over and over and over and over again as she stumbled or was traded/captured/"rescued" from one owner or employer to another. Currently installed in a Blackbird with some Opteryx-inspired mods to make it a stealthy ground-runner as well as flyer.

But her heart's in the right place! (somewhere between her esophagus and her spleen)

I like to think that her memories as read show that there's a fair bit more to her, though. :)

[wander]

Hia, back after friend's bday and hangover weekend fiasco! ^^;;

After reading through, I'd like to use my regular character, Fox Vaan if possible. His character sheet is spoiler tagged in my request thread (link in sig) under the Eclipse Phase part in the first post. Quickly though, he's a former Scum turned Barsoomian. I created him with standard character generation and he has no extra experience or buys, he was built for starting games like this.

Any questions or comments, feel free to let me know here or PM me.  :-)

Only concern; My main off when it comes to EP games are two-fold, games stalling due to lengthy OOC discussions on science and realism when a simple dice roll can decide whether something happens or not, also it's the kind of game where people feel compelled to write massive posts, which intimidate me and I find a chore to reply to... I just wanted to know what your thoughts on these were before throwing my chips into the pot, Blythe.  :-)

[Blythe]

OOC discussions on science and realism when a simple dice roll can decide whether something happens or not

I love science, but I'm not a stickler on realism. A bit of discussion is great, but if I think things are getting bogged down, I'd either let the dice decide or make a GM call.

, also it's the kind of game where people feel compelled to write massive posts, which intimidate me and I find a chore to reply to... I just wanted to know what your thoughts on these were before throwing my chips into the pot, Blythe.  :-)

I don't have a posting length requirement of any sort--sometimes people want to write long posts, and that's cool. But I'm of the opinion that for system games, write what feels right, whether that's a couple of sentences or a few paragraphs. Sometimes if someone's making a dice roll, you don't need several paragraphs to go with it--a few lines is fine. Sometimes there might not be rolling, but the RP text might be a little heavier. My posts might be a tad heavier whenever I'm needing to set up any introductory scenes, for example, but my posts will be shorter when resolving rolls.

As previously mentioned, though, this is going to be a slow-paced game. Anyone particularly concerned about a game having feelings of being "bogged down" might want to give my particular game a pass.

[Blythe]

Also, double post, but just a small list so I can keep track:

* Those who have sent in statistics/showed me statistics (will be reviewed and I'll get back to you within the next few days):
- Angiejuusan
- Riveda
- wander

* Those who have pitched concepts:
- CarnivaloftheGoat (who also pitched a writing sample)

* Those who stated interest:
- ReijiTabibito
- Muse

[ReijiTabibito]

Sorry for the delay.  I got lost on the road of life.

Okay.  I'm still cranking things out, Blythe, but I have a general concept that I've been tossing around to submit to you.  To sum up in one sentence:

The love child of a three-way between Indiana Jones, Samus Aran, and a Vault Hunter.

There's a bit I'm still debating, like specific backgrounds (one of the pitfalls of the much-vaunted Kindalas' spreadsheet - it includes no Backgrounds or Factions that are introduced in Transhuman), though I've got the Faction nailed down to one of three (Argonaut, Precautionist, or Titanian).  Their main focus - in terms of Knowledge skills - would be on things like Gate Operations, Exoplanets, and Forensic Archaeology, with a side-dash of being a TITAN containment specialist.

[ChaoticSky]

I am also interested in this! ...And frankly shocked that someone wants to run it. But also pleased.... very very pleased. I've lived with a sad dearth of EP since my last game died.

Mhmm, that said, all my go-to concepts are already out. There is a Raven-Uplift already (and I wouldn't dream of stepping on dear Carni's toes), Lost are banned and Ultimates are a bad idea given the locale. I shall have to come up with something new!

[Muse]

  And my only concept Reiji is running for me.  ^_^;; 

  Let's see what I can come up with... 

  Is there any sort of skill set it would be important to have that isn't represented yet? 

[ChaoticSky]

On second thought, Blythe, are you okay with me doing a Ultimate? I normally wouldnt pitch one wandering around in Char Noir, but you do mention that G-OP is looking for them.... Would set her up with a combination social/combat focus with scientific/intellectual undertones, Iconics faction.

Otherwise, im thinking a neo-cetacean with a focus on mapping/geography/oceanography.

[Blythe]

Listy thing

* Those who have sent in statistics/showed me statistics (will be reviewed and I'll get back to you within the next few days):
- Angiejuusan
- Riveda
- wander

* Those who have pitched concepts:
- CarnivaloftheGoat (who also pitched a writing sample)
- ReijiTabibito

* Those who stated interest:
- Muse

Is there any sort of skill set it would be important to have that isn't represented yet? 

I haven't gone through submitted sheets, so I'll just posit a list of skills that would be handy. That in mind, I'll endeavor to tailor challenges for those who don't have these skills when possible.

Skills that will come up in the initial adventure to Penrose:
- Programming
- Medicine (only forms that would be suitable for on-the-fly combat medics, etc.)
- Interfacing
- Kinetic Weapons
- Freerunning
- At least one skill pertaining to TITAN knowledge

Other skills will be valuable, sure, but the above six will come into play most likely at some juncture.

On second thought, Blythe, are you okay with me doing a Ultimate? I normally wouldnt pitch one wandering around in Char Noir, but you do mention that G-OP is looking for them.... Would set her up with a combination social/combat focus with scientific/intellectual undertones, Iconics faction.

An Ultimate would be welcome. If you choose to go that route, make sure your character has good @-rep to justify being in Chat Noir peaceably. :)

[Rook Seidhr]

Yeah, someone should be a medic for sure.

[ReijiTabibito]

  And my only concept Reiji is running for me.  ^_^;; 

  Let's see what I can come up with... 

  Is there any sort of skill set it would be important to have that isn't represented yet?

Programming can actually be a pretty big asset.  My character will have some of that, but it won't be a primary focus of theirs at the start.  You might want to look into that, Muse.

[Rook Seidhr]

My character has a silly high level of Programming and other nanofabrication-related skills. Interfacing and Infosec might be a better way for Muse to go.

[Angie]

I to have high Programming. I can also FLY! And do a few other things. Interfacing is what Lyscaris excels in though, she's got a 90 in it.

[Blythe]

Some skill overlap is okay, should be noted. ^^

[Muse]

Well, this is my original concept's history.  (Need to remember they don't want google drive links in the public parts of the site!)


History:   Growing up on Earth before the fall, Rindi became a huge fan of action oriented weekend long A.R. games.  She had a knack for the athleticism and combat prowess required.  By the time she entered high school, it occurred to her that a formal study of athleticism and combat skills could improve her game considerably.  She joined the gymnastics club, took lessons at the firing range, and found a really good martial arts dojo. 

   In the gymnastics club, she discovered parkour--as a sport, an art, and as an entertainment widely followed on the Mesh.  Her mixture of natural talent, serious training, gaming, and enjoyment of what she was doing made her very good.  Mixed with her hot body, pretty face, and easy smile, she became quite popular in her set and was soon making money selling various recordings of her games and athletic exploits. 

   During the Fall, Rini tried to lead some kids to safety through a city that was being crushed.  She lead them from war zone to war zone.  The last thing she remembers was leaping off of a collapsing building with a little boy in her arm while some sort of combat mecha sprayed the street below her with automatic rail gun fire. 

   After the eventual retrieval of her digitized identity, Rindi spent several years on the Mesh, playing games, learning at random, and studying electronics.  She picked up a lot of skills, but still thought of it as killing time in VR while she waited for an opportunity to acquire a new body.  She didn’t get what she’d expected. 

   Aaron Shin, the son of a hypercorp shareholder fast tracked for the board of directors himself enjoyed A.R. games and parkour in his leisure time.  He came across recordings she’d done of her games and parkour--and also some energetic and sexy roof to roof dances she’d featured in. 

   Aaron became mildly obsessed with her.  (It's not like he was used to encountering anything he couldn’t have.)  Before even approaching her with the contract, he’d already commissioned a custom morph for her, an olympian frame based on her original body, but even more attractive and possessed of some actual ‘action girl’ themed bioware.  It was already prepared when his people made Rindi the offer.  “Mr. Shin is looking for a companion.  A courtesan if you will, but one with the skill and athleticism to accompany him in his A.R. games and athletic adventures.” 

   Rindi was extremely dubious.  She knew that calling most people who got a Sleeve through corporate sponsorship wound up in a condition comparable to 17th century bond servants at best.  The agent glossed it over, but she knew the out she was being offered was to become a glorified slave girl to this “Aaron Shin.”  Given that immortality was the norm in this day and age, she might wind up his bed and sleeping bag warmer for centuries--never losing her youthful beauty or physical edge or whatever else might fade to encourage him to tire of her. 

   When the agent realized she was on the verge of refusing, he pulled out the stick to go with the carot.  He mentioned that turning down a body would see her dropped to the bottom of the waiting list.  He insinuated that her name might slip off of that list all together.  In fact, her identity might wind up unplugged from the matrix and misspaced, leaving her in digital statis ‘til the end of time. 

   Furious and terrified, Rindi finally agreed.  She was shut down.  Her personality and memories were edited.  She thinks she has a good idea of in what ways.  He removed her former lovers from her memory, making her a mental virgin as well as physical.  Her vague streak of sexual submissiveness was heightened to the point where it was almost a compulsion.  For her first three years she was Aaron Shin’s submissive and loving companion in spite of herself. 

   Her resentment of her sation slowly grew.  She only left Aaron’s home to accompany him to games or athletic events.  She wasn't permitted to work, she wasn’t permitted to game without him.  He had many other women.  This didn’t bother her when she was allowed to participate, but…   The fact that her master seemed to genuinely enjoy her company made it especially hard to resist. 

   In her heart of hearts, she has to confess to herself that--if he weren’t such a bastard--she’d still be there, his loving slave girl. 

   But the longer she served him, the more she learned exactly what kind of man he really was--and how many suffered for it.  Sweat shops and flagrant pollution were the source of his wealth.  He was self centered and churlish.  He tormented his enemies and his lessers with glee. 

   Over the next year, Rindi used the cortex to make friends and connections.  She showed proof of the Hypercorp’s misdeeds to the right people while bringing herself into the public eye as an example of their crimes.  Eventually, Aaron’s father ordered him to emancipate Rindi before she could stir up any real trouble. 

   Once released, she moved to the slums of mars and ran with a band of rebels.  Eventually one of her contacts recruited her into Fire Wall. 

   For both of these groups, she uses skills she honed as a gamer to become a formidable warrior. 

*  *  *

Notworthy skills: Action Girl, Parkor expert, rail guns and swords.  Driver.  Electroincis.  Networking. 

[wander]

Also Blythe, as I may or may not have mentioned for my character in my request thread, reps can certainly be shifted about on the sheet for a better fit and also with the talk of skills, I can swap one or two around if you feel it would be best for the character also. :)

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Just a quick addendum regarding Svetlana's skillset:

She's a scout, search and rescue and a standoff fighter.

Higher skills include Flight, Fray, Infiltration, Perception, Pilot: Aircraft, Prof: Reconnaissance, Prof: Search-and-Rescue, and Seeker Weapons (K- and laser weapons require having a LOS to your target...Seeker weapons only require your laser-designating drone to have a LOS to target. Indirect fire! It's what's for dinner... ;D )

I have a rough-out of the sheet, should have something finished tomorrow or Tuesday.

[ReijiTabibito]

Quick question.  What does the gender ego-balance look like right now?

[Angie]

Lyscaris is definitely female in ego, due to her creation even though she was (re)made as an AI. I should probably write down her origin eventually.

[Rook Seidhr]

Doric is generally male.

[Blythe]

Listy thing

* Those who have sent in statistics/showed me statistics (will be reviewed and I'll get back to you within the next few days):
- Angiejuusan
- Riveda
- wander

* Those who have pitched concepts:
- CarnivaloftheGoat (who also pitched a writing sample)
- ReijiTabibito
- Muse

* Those who stated interest:
- ChaoticSky

I have a rough-out of the sheet, should have something finished tomorrow or Tuesday.

Take your time. :)

I'm in no rush to get things done, and most likely it will be a few days before I can read/review everything. Since I know EP isn't really run often on these boards, I'm giving some time for anyone else that might want to post interest to post some interest.

I could skim sheets submitted right now, but I'm much rather allot some time to sit down for a more significant amount of time and review concepts/backstories/stats more in-depth. I like to customize stuff I run to the characters that I'll pick to be in it when possible.

[wander]

Fox Vaan is male, but doesn't mind slipping into other gender bodies.

His current Splicer on his sheet is a clone of his original body and is male.

[ChaoticSky]

Sarah is female, for what its worth. XD

I also got her sheet done (yaay me) in the character maker thing i use, so i should soon (hopefully!) have it converted for here.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Svetlana is also female (and an uplifted raven sleeved in a synth body and that's not what that port is for, but ego-wise, yes, female).

[Blythe]

Just mentioning--as a GM, I'm not too terribly concerned about character gender ratio. Sexual content isn't a priority for me for this game; sexual content will have its own thread separate from main plot threads. Sexual content would most likely occur during downtime in Chat Noir.

If it's important to y'all as players, I can keep character gender in mind when selecting the six characters for the group, but otherwise, character gender won't really be something I consider when I'm looking at which characters to include.

[Angie]

I don't personally care about gender ratio, ESPECIALLY not in this setting. Balanced party should mean we have the Holy Trinity of Tank, DPS, and Healing, not equal amounts of sausage and clam!

[ChaoticSky]

This is true, I mean, even mental gender doesnt exactly matter alot given that half the time well probably either be neuter (synths unless you work really hard at it), or in bodies with probably-random genders(if we egocast, or die, or if anyone has a sexswitch, etc)

[ReijiTabibito]

Blythe has made it pretty clear that most of what will be happening in-story will be based around the Fissure Gate on Oberon on Uranus, with gatecrashing and Chat Noir antics spliced in together.  Death is possible, but I doubt egocasting will happen.

[Blythe]

Death is possible, but I doubt egocasting will happen.

This.

Each character will be assumed to have backup insurance (no need to purchase it--it's automatically a given). Should something unfortunate happen when on a Gatecrashing op, a backup will be activated after a set amount of time passes--from the cortical stack when possible/if retrievable, but otherwise from the most recent backup available. It is generally assumed Sentinels will have an up-to-date backup just before the mission begins. (That'll be the NPC Arvind's doing)

For everyone: let me know what sex you prefer your morphs to generally be, and should your character have to be restored from a backup, I'll place them in a morph with that sex.

[Angie]

To take the most advantage of being Right At Home in a Synth body, Lyscaris will do with feminine appearing Synth morphs.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

For everyone: let me know what sex you prefer your morphs to generally be, and should your character have to be restored from a backup, I'll place them in a morph with that sex.

Světlana's focus when selecting a new morph usually goes down a checklist something like "high maneuverability, low profile, excellent sensors." This makes Blackbirds or modified Blackbirds a highly desireable go-to when she can manage it.

She's never managed to get along well enough with her own species (frankly, other avian-uplifts are more likely to notice her flaws and be wierded out by them than human-type posthumans are) for sex to be a significant element of her life. (Which I suppose might make her a challenge, if anyone so desires.)

And that makes it occur to me that her background-as-posited could be interpreted as making her appear very much as an independent, introverted and possibly standoffish type...And those often aren't fun to roleplay with. This isn't really the case. What Světlana is, is someone who has problems with communication. Having difficulty with is not the same as having lack of desire. I tend to create characters with some elements of social/emotional growth arc idea in mind. In Světlana's case, this will hopefully pan out as becoming better at communicating her thoughts and feelings with the other team elements, as well as becoming better able to understand theirs.

Probably one of the few places where her 'socialness' and 'not being an independent murderhobo' is apparent (since her point-of-view is necessarily about her own, personal experience) is where she breaks orders after accomplishing her part of the mission and goes off-course to check on (and eventually to help out) her siblings.

She is a team player. She's just a team player who is frequently frustrated at trying to understand and communicate with the team when it comes to subtleties.

Obviously this is easier when communication is about something she's extremely experienced with. She can communicate threat warnings and situational information and accept orders quite handily...If she couldn't do those things, she'd never have survived this long (for definitions of "survival" which include multiple reincarnations!), much less been able to participate in inherently mutual survival situations like gatecrashing and search-and-rescue. Where she falls down is trying to deal with subtle and social things.

[wander]

I have a higher preference for male morphs for my guy to be sleeved into, though Fox is generally easy when it comes to it.

Basically, I don't really mind what he's sleeved into if their current Splicer body gets jacked. ^^

[Blythe]

Hey, all! If submitting a stat sheet, please tell me how you allotted your points during chargen (what you spent & where). This helps me review sheets; since I've never GMed this before, this will strongly let me speed up reviewing.

[ReijiTabibito]

Blythe?  Is there a way we can send you a document?  I have an Excel sheet that does all of the calculations for you, but I would need to get it to you somehow.

Also, what's everyone thinking in terms of Background & Faction?

[Blythe]

Blythe?  Is there a way we can send you a document?  I have an Excel sheet that does all of the calculations for you, but I would need to get it to you somehow.

Also, what's everyone thinking in terms of Background & Faction?

Will PM you with an e-mail you can send it to. :)

[Angie]

Hypercorp Infolife. I have the story of why this is ready to go, but I wanna make sure my crunch (numbers) are good before I deal with the Fluff (story).

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Hypercorp Infolife. I have the story of why this is ready to go, but I wanna make sure my crunch (numbers) are good before I deal with the Fluff (story).

There's sooooo much crunch in setting up an EP character, unless you're comfortable with it, it might be good to be sure the concept will fly with the GM first, IMHO. :) Although it sounds fine to me so far, and character faction doesn't necessarily represent where your character's head is at (the core rules spell this out explicitly on p.132, "You may be a dissident member
of your faction, living among them but opposing some (or all) of their core memes and perhaps agitating for change.").

Světlana is, pretty predictably, coming from an Uplift/Mercurial headspace, although her current mindset is probably edging closer to Extropian/@narchist. She isn't super-fussed about property beyond her own body/equipment, in emergencies isn't about to stand on propriety of property but rather "who can make best use of this to save everyone's collective butts," but also definitely has become aware of the advantages in much of the system which accrue to having cash on hand.

If her Muse didn't handle her finances, she'd probably work cheap just to have the work. Certainly she doesn't try charging @narchist collectives when it's made clear that she's expected to pitch in and help. She is what she is, she enjoys best doing what she does...

EDIT: If anyone needs help with crunch, feel free to drop me a note. I'm happy to help hash out numbers/ideas/ability dynamics.

[Blythe]

There's sooooo much crunch in setting up an EP character, unless you're comfortable with it, it might be good to be sure the concept will fly with the GM first, IMHO. :) Although it sounds fine to me so far, and character faction doesn't necessarily represent where your character's head is at (the core rules spell this out explicitly on p.132, "You may be a dissident member
of your faction, living among them but opposing some (or all) of their core memes and perhaps agitating for change.").

Angie's already run her concept by me and submitted a stat sheet for review.  ;)

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Angie's already run her concept by me and submitted a stat sheet for review.  ;)

Cool beans. Just trying to offer help/counsel. :)

[Angie]

I pretty comfy with Crunch, honestly, it's just that I'm currently sitting at what I THINK is 965 CP spent, and I wanna make sure I'm accurate before loading on 35 CP extra of stuff.

[Rook Seidhr]

Hey, all! If submitting a stat sheet, please tell me how you allotted your points during chargen (what you spent & where).

OK, I will send you a chart of points spent.

Do you have a copy of Singularity, the official chargen program for EP? If not, I just accidentally bought a new copy thinking there was a version update. >.< So I can legally send it to you…or any other one person. (If Blythe doesn't want it, FCFS, I suppose.)

[ReijiTabibito]

Is Singularity out now?  I might have to see if I've got money for it.  Riv, if Blythe doesn't want it, I'm calling dibs.

[Blythe]

Do you have a copy of Singularity, the official chargen program for EP? If not, I just accidentally bought a new copy thinking there was a version update. >.< So I can legally send it to you…or any other one person. (If Blythe doesn't want it, FCFS, I suppose.)

I don't have it; if you have a legal copy to share, I would be very grateful for it, as I don't currently have money to purchase it.

[Rook Seidhr]

OK, Blythe, I'll PM you a URL for download.

EDIT: What OS do you run? We gots the Windows, we gots the Mac OS X, we gots the Linux Ubuntu.

[Blythe]

We gots teh Windows 8~

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Oh! They got it working and out? That's awesome. I presume it's got all of the goodies from Transhuman in it as well?

Going to have to try to squeeze that into next month's budget.

[Rook Seidhr]

Yeah, unlike the cool spreadsheet it is up to date with all published material.

EDIT: It is not the easiest program to use, and there is no help file…but it works and it doesn't crash and it has all the data.

EDIT EDIT: US$30 from posthumanstudios.com .

[Blythe]

...

Singluarity is love. Singularity is life.

This is going to make checking sheets a lot easier.

[ChaoticSky]

Uuugh. I used a online generator (the Next Loop/EPCC one) that doesnt display a itemized list of how you spent everything as far as i can tell... i could rebuild it, but id need a copy of singularity first :<

[Angie]

Alright kids, sit right back and I'll tell you a tale. The tale of Lyscaris Hasi.

A long time ago-well, a RIGHT NOW time ago-there was a company known as Exotech. Known to be the leaders in AI research and brain uploading, they attracted many star students, including Lyscaris's father. Lyscaris herself followed her father's footsteps, diving into AIs and software at an early age, even developing a couple of videogames (by hacking and rewriting the base game she was working with, but still-level of devotion you don't see in most teenagers). She joined up with Exotech the moment she had the chance to do so, which came after quite a bit of education. She also had a bit of a thing for synthetic morphs, but this was chalked up to how Lyscaris always seemed more comfortable around machines then people.

Good fortune doesn't last long in this world, and tragedy always has a way of striking. In this case, however, the dice came down hard against young Ms. Hasi. A criminal group had infiltrated Exotech to destroy some precious data, and Lyscaris interrupted this by, well, walking in at the wrong time. One of the members of the group panicked-he was new. He opened fire and blew the woman's head off-which sadly damaged her cortical stack to the point that almost no useful data could be gleamed from the remains. Rather then continue with the fine tuned, 'only delete what we need to' approach, the criminal group proceeded to fry the entire server-which was where most of the backups of various egos were being stored. In other words, Lyscaris was dead, dead, dead, DEAD.

Her father refused to accept this. In the aftermath, he spent many late nights engaged in a process most would forbid-recreating his beloved daughter as an AGI. He poured his heart and soul into the work, but just before he pushed the button to turn her on, he stopped. Perhaps rebuilding her had made him realize that Lyscaris herself was never truly coming back. Maybe he found what he was doing to be creepy. Maybe a mix of many things, but for whatever reason, his hand stopped just short of the 'run executable' button.

Exotech didn't know about Lyscaris 2.0 until years later, when she was found on company servers and turned on. Amazed at the splendid work, her father was promoted. If there be a God of Irony, he was laughing his divine ass off. Lyscaris knew who her creator was, and those who knew Lyscaris from before marveled at how close the AGI was to her. She was very happy to work for Exotech, mirroring old Lyscaris's same enthusiasm for Software and electronics.

Her creator-her father-sank further into depression for every minute that she existed. Eventually, he decided to do something about it. He erased Lyscaris's memories of him, and disappeared, fading into the shadows so fully Exotech had nowhere to start looking for him. Lyscaris existed with no idea of her creator for years, until now.

Finding data on someone with her last name-Hasi-in Exotech's database, she dug deeper and found out about his disappearance. She searched as much as she could, and decided that she wouldn't get any farther in Exotech's servers-if they hadn't found him, she needed to go elsewhere. Pitching the idea of going off on her own to find her father sounded insane, but the people who mattered decided to allow it-she was good, but perhaps she could do better promoting Exotech's interests elsewhere. Her long record of working for the company as an AGI (and thus, requiring no more maintenance then the power already used to run the company) allowed her to get a Synth body for "free".

Her efforts have brought her to Obberon, and also to Firewall. Someone sees her potential and snagged her, offering assistance in finding her creator if she helped them. She agreed, and is now at least on their radar. Where will she go from here, especially if Looking Glass turns out to be no help in getting her closer to her creator?

(Yes I am deliberately leaving the "what is she up to now" part a little vague so it's easier to slot her into the current going ons)

[Blythe]

Listy thing

* Concept/Sheets Reviewed, Currently being tweaked/finalized:
- Angiejuusan
- Riveda

* Those who have sent in statistics/showed me statistics (will be reviewed and I'll get back to you within the next few days):
- wander

* Those who have pitched concepts:
- CarnivaloftheGoat (who also pitched a writing sample)
- ReijiTabibito
- Muse
- ChaoticSky

Angiejuusan deserves a trophy for putting up with me and my terrible bookkeeping. >_>

Update:
Riveda and Angiejuusan are both approved and will be part of the group! I will update the 1st post to reflect this.

Riveda with a character of possessing the Scumborn background in a Crasher morph, affiliated with the Scum faction, and Angiejuusan with a character with an Infolife background, affiliated with the Hypercorps, in a Synth morph. There are a few things to finalize, but these are small things. Welcome aboard!

This means 2/6 player slots are filled. I will resume reviewing submitted concepts/statistics tomorrow. Right now, mah brain is still kinda sore from all that math. ^^;

[Angie]

Bookkeeping is what I do, a lot of. I didn't have to get the Clue Bat, so you're fine.

Anyway, yay! My (absolutely SHIT!) backstory was accepted! Now to go find sexy robot girls to represent my character!

EDIT: Blythe, I'm amazed that in the entire time you were reviewing this sheet, you never once popped up and said "Wait, why the FUCK do you have demolitions?"

[Blythe]

EDIT: Blythe, I'm amazed that in the entire time you were reviewing this sheet, you never once popped up and said "Wait, why the FUCK do you have demolitions?"

I'm a "yes" sort of GM. So long as the points add up and something looks super fun to me (and...um...I really really like explosions. I blame this on too much exposure to Michael Bay movies), I tend to say "yes" and allow it. :)

Besides, Demolitions might come in handy!

[Angie]

In all truth, she's probably going to be using that skill to DISARM bombs more then actually use them (though she might take them with her...). That being said, considering I also have Blades, Beam Weapons, Flight, and Fray all at solid levels despite starting 'life' as an AGI, this can be chalked up to "learned it after leaving Exotech because it might be useful".

[Rook Seidhr]

That is a very teal color scheme you've picked out for your new avi and sig, Blythe. It really pops against my generally orange theme.

Angie, I forgot Lyscaris was Hypercorp-affiliated. We are going to get on so well… (We are not going to get on well.)

[Angie]

Well, 1, it's not like she had much of a choice in the matter, and 2, she'll probably be really confused as to why you hate her. She doesn't really get faction stuff, you could try explaining it to her but you'd have to use some game that has it where when you gain rep from one faction you lose points with another.

Also, I really should just put that 30 A rep into C rep because it makes NO fucking sense for her to have rep with anarchists.

[Blythe]

That is a very teal color scheme you've picked out for your new avi and sig, Blythe. It really pops against my generally orange theme.

Angie, I forgot Lyscaris was Hypercorp-affiliated. We are going to get on so well… (We are not going to get on well.)

I tend to like matching teal avis/sigs when I'm in a teal tag. :)

Well, 1, it's not like she had much of a choice in the matter, and 2, she'll probably be really confused as to why you hate her. She doesn't really get faction stuff, you could try explaining it to her but you'd have to use some game that has it where when you gain rep from one faction you lose points with another.

Also, I really should just put that 30 A rep into C rep because it makes NO fucking sense for her to have rep with anarchists.

Feel free to bump those points over to C-rep. Also, let me know when you've finalized your specialties and Muse stuff!

[Angie]

Oh that stuff is done, the specialties are marked under Backup Details (cause I can't find anywhere else to put the smeggin' things!) and she just has the Standard Muse as detailed under Gear, though that does mean I have to pick three knowledge skills for it, sigh...

Rep is modified-30 C Rep, 10 I rep, and 10 R rep. It reflects that she's been in the Hypercorp for most of her existence (life is a word that just doesn't seen to frelling fit), but she's skilled enough to impress scientists and Firewall even if both groups aren't willing to invest heavily into her.

[Rook Seidhr]

Well, 1, it's not like she had much of a choice in the matter, and 2, she'll probably be really confused as to why you hate her.

Oh, Doric won't hate her. It's the hypercorps that hate Doric. You can lose c-rep just from hanging out with him.

OTOH don't start on Doric and EcoWave (the e-rep network). He's blacklisted there from shooting his mouth off once too often on a prominent blog about what he thinks of reclaimers…

[Angie]

I'm sure Lyscaris can bullshit her way out of taking a rep hit. "Oh him? I'm only associating with him on missions and I'm only using him as a skill monkey and a bullet sponge." Then send a PM to Doric: "That's not the truth but go with it, please?"

[Rook Seidhr]

I'm only associating with him on missions

Secret missions for Firewall. You can't talk about Firewall on CivicNet.

[Angie]

Well then in that case I may just have to take the Rep hit. Or just never associate with him in any way that could get back to C net.

[Rook Seidhr]

Or just never associate with him in any way that could get back to C net.

That will be fun trying to maintain :D

[ChaoticSky]

Its a saucy affair!  ;D

[Angie]

Lyscaris: "Affair? Whaaaat?" *If you didn't know robots couldn't blush, you'd swear she was doing that right now* "I-i-i-i-i-i-i-i've never even had sex..."

[Angie]

DOUBLE POST ZOMG anyway, anyone want help with all this? I'd consider myself a fairly solid bookkeeper so if you want some help with 'le Crunch, call me.

[Blythe]

Just letting folks know that while I'm being a bit quiet today, I do promise I'm reviewing sheets that have been submitted. :)

[Blythe]

<snip> <lots of good stuff here>

I realized I never replied to this specifically or gave you feedback on your concept! My apologies, CarnivalOfTheGoat!

Real quick--Great concept, excellent writing sample...plus, I have a soft spot for Uplifts! I'd be willing to review a sheet for this concept.  8-)



I must say, getting quite a diverse lineup of character concepts and sheets so far! Mostly done with reviewing the sheets submitted by wander adn ChaoticSky, just getting some last details checked.  :-)

[Blythe]

ChaoticSky's character has been approved--her Ultimate Drifter will be joining G-OP. :)

3/6 slots now filled, OP updated.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

I realized I never replied to this specifically or gave you feedback on your concept! My apologies, CarnivalOfTheGoat!

Real quick--Great concept, excellent writing sample...plus, I have a soft spot for Uplifts! I'd be willing to review a sheet for this concept.  8-)

Thanks. I didn't want to joggle your elbow, but I was leery of finalizing a sheet on a character idea that I'd hung out there for GM review and gotten nothing but cricket-noises on. XD

I'll get cracking on finishing up Světlana's sheet.

[ReijiTabibito]

Question to the GM.  There are optional rules for handling being a Titanian character  - you'll find them at the end of the Rimward book.  Are we going to use those rules?  (The major thing I worry about is the loss of @-rep for not voting on Plurality business.)  And if we are going to use them, then is there some way I could have a communications link set up on Chat Noir to handle it?

[Angie]

So, I'm thinking of using the image below as my character



Thoughts?

[Blythe]

Question to the GM.  There are optional rules for handling being a Titanian character  - you'll find them at the end of the Rimward book.  Are we going to use those rules?  (The major thing I worry about is the loss of @-rep for not voting on Plurality business.)  And if we are going to use them, then is there some way I could have a communications link set up on Chat Noir to handle it?

Hmmm. Not sure. Do you want those rules to be used? I have no strong feelings about using them or not using them.

If I use them, the NPC Arvnid will provide a suitable cover for Titianian characters (which I'll work out with players of Titianian characters), so they can be perceived as 'abroad' and given an exemption from voting.

During Chat Noir downtime, at minimum, I'd probably provide some manner of communication to allow participation/voting in Plurality business, if I were using the Rimward rules. I'm not really stoked about the idea of a character often risking tanking their @-rep over an area that isn't the campaign focus.

[Rook Seidhr]

The other possibility wrt Titanian politics would be to leave a beta fork behind to manage things, and check in periodically by farcaster.

Having an acknowledged beta normally costs 5 CP but maybe Blythe could waive that in this particular case.

[Angie]

Lyscaris will have no idea what Titanian politics are. Though I'm getting that she doesn't really have to care, but she'll be really confused if its brought up.

Hell, she's probably going to have a lot of questions about Chat Noir anyway.

[ReijiTabibito]

Blythe, just PMed you on this topic.

There are ways to get around the rep penalty for not being there - one good excuse is that you were doing work on behalf of the Titanian Commonwealth.  If you can successfully prove that, then no problems.

Of course, then that would mean you're working for them...

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Busy few days, and then I managed to do something terrible to my spreadsheet last night. I've recovered most of it and should have Světlana's character sheet ready for approval sometime in the next day.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Thought some parts of a recent PM I sent might be useful to those who haven't done much reading on the environment of Oberon and Chat Noir...Or it may be old hat for people familiar with the EP setting:

Gates vary, I believe, and there's no reason one couldn't be in orbit (after all, Oberon is a moon, itself). Even if we're "at home," if we're operating out of Chat Noir, then "home" is Oberon...Uranus IV. That means it's not "as cold as" Pluto, but it's still "If your suit breaches you're dead meat almost instantaneously." Oberon has an escape velocity of .727 km/s, but just like with Earth, a much lower velocity than that will take you clear of the surface for a good, long while (compare Oberon's surface gravity of 0.0346m/s^2 to Earth's 9.8m/s^2 or Luna's 1.6m/s^2...A serious jump could leave you hanging above 'ground' for minutes or hours!). Driving around in a vehicle in a place where accidental fast acceleration over a bump could put you into a long ballistic trajectory and where all Earth's gases are in either liquid or solid form (Surface temp on the sunward side is a balmy 70K...Or -333F or -203C if you prefer...) is going to be very hazardous indeed.

It's also a question of societal values. The further out from Sol you go, the less likely it is that you'll have people who own things that they never/rarely use (or who don't own anything except themselves and what they carry). Mass is cost, and conspicuous consumption may worry the neighbors, particularly if they are stretched thin themselves. Shipping a car from point to point out in the deep black is insanely costly in terms of fuel mass, so if you have a car on Oberon, you'd probably have needed to convince/do lots of favors for, somebody(ies) who could fabricate and assemble it and who were willing to dump that much resource mass into something that might not be all that useful...A Gatecrasher Truck, on the other hand, makes perfect sense in a town whose existence is predicated on being a Gate access point, but it'd probably be fabbed-on-favor for an expedition rather than someone's personal ride-about-town. Probably much easier to talk someone into fabbing weaponry, because its utility in a frontier outpost responsible for Gate defense and where everyone has the community responsibility of protecting the community is pretty obvious. Definitely look up Gatecrashing 63-5.

Closer to Sol, you have a post-scarcity society with scarcity artificially imposed by the Hypercorps (thus the legal and technological limitations imposed on fabbers). Farther from Sol your society is still post-scarcity to a point, but anything 'big' is liable to be community-owned and usable by many. Generally speaking, your morph is your own, and your personal effects are your own, of course. But it's doubtful that you'd need a car inside of Chat Noir (described as "a small frontier town" with very anarchist leanings). Storage space is "free" if you want to park it outside of Chat Noir, but taking up (pressurized, heated) space might cause others to perceive it as "borrowable" since it's "taking up community space." Note the commentary on the "autonomist lifestyle" on Transhuman 105. It seems likely that the Love & Rage Collective takes a similar view to that espoused by the immigration broadcasters for Locus (another Autonomist community):

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

“Welcome to Locus. You voluntarily assume the risk of organic damage or mental trauma by mooring here. You must bring or be capable of acquiring enough food, H20, oxygen, and shelter to survive for the duration of your stay in a harsh, asteroid-rich environment. Weapons of mass destruction are prohibited. Further guidelines for coexisting with your fellow entities are in the habitat survival guide. You and only you are responsible for yourself—learn to love it!”

Aaaaand now back I go to trying to reconstruct Světlana's spreadsheet...

[ChaoticSky]

That said, its worth pointing out two things;

1) There are morphs that are perfectly capable of surviving Oberon's surface, and i dont mean Synths either. Biomorphs with the proper augs (such as Cryonic temperature tolerance) will find the open vacuum of the surface to be a touch chilly, but nothing a stout coat wont take care of. And in broader terms EP is acquainted well enough with living in space that there isnt alot of inherent risk to the moon's environment unless you do something fantastically stupid. Such common tech as gas-jet packs or augs nullify the risk of spending hours contemplating your life choices while you wait to land.

2) Chat Noir (and the Love and Rage Coalition that manages it), is a major Autonomous Alliance base, its no Brinker colony drifting in the void, and the sheer amount of value inherent in the Fissure Gate drives a extremely robust local economy, quite literally built around servicing the Gate and facilitating gate ops. It wont be too hard to get our hands on anything we need for missions within reason, since anything we could want has likely been requested before and there will be locals with the blueprints and fabbers to provide it to those with suitable rep scores. We know for a fact that there are colonization ops running through Fissure, which require staggering amount of material, so they must either have sources on hand or some way to get them in a hurry (conventionally pushing a cargo of that size out to Uranus from the inner system would be ludicrous, and no single Autonomous entity other than Titan could gather such materials themselves all in one shot. So logically the infrastructure must be inherent in Chat Noir its self or dispersed across the AA.)

I mean, its not the Ritz, but as far as the fringe of the system goes, we are going to a major facility, not some place where they might be counting the breaths you take to make sure you arnt straining their life support systems. There will be entertainment, services, parties, and plenty of ways to get drunk/high/in trouble/etc.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

1) Especially vac-sealing. ;) I was really more pointing out in relation to the buggy idea that any wheeled surface-vehicle moving at more than the slowest crawl would be liable to go sailing off over the horizon the moment it hit the tiniest bump, not that the place was uninhabitable (although even a Titanian would want vacuum-mods). It's a microgravity environment, not even lunar gravity. Going for a walk you probably would want to be anchored if you didn't have thrusters.

2) Agreed. I was just noting that on an autonomist base, if you leave something sitting around and someone decides they need it, good neighborliness suggests that they'll put it back in as-found condition when they're done...whenever that is! I wasn't suggesting there'd be a need to pay for parking or breathing. Just that anything sitting around easily reachable indoors might potentially be "borrowed."

Again, Gatecrashing 63-5 provides an excellent rundown on the situation...Including that Gatecrashers are, themselves, expected to be autonomous and able to supply their own resources.

[FarFetched]

*claws her way to the surface*

Oooh, more eclipse phase~! I'm currently running a character in a FATE version of this game on another thread, and I have to say the lore is amazing. I had a second character idea for this game that I never got to bring up in the other, but I'm still trying to remember the concept. Either way, color me interested.

[ReijiTabibito]

Speaking of vacuum sealing, there is a question.  I'm going over the armor setup for my character - you need a whole-body setup to resist vacuum, right?  A Vacsuit by itself isn't enough, you need a helmet to go with it, and Light Body Armor doesn't provide a full seal...

EDIT: I swear to God, I hate the fact that critical means rolling doubles.  It means that if you want to maximize your skills, you end up having a whole bunch of weird-ass numbers all over your character sheet.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

*claws her way to the surface*

Oooh, more eclipse phase~! I'm currently running a character in a FATE version of this game on another thread, and I have to say the lore is amazing. I had a second character idea for this game that I never got to bring up in the other, but I'm still trying to remember the concept. Either way, color me interested.

Hey there! Welcome.

Speaking of vacuum sealing, there is a question.  I'm going over the armor setup for my character - you need a whole-body setup to resist vacuum, right?  A Vacsuit by itself isn't enough, you need a helmet to go with it, and Light Body Armor doesn't provide a full seal...

Some misunderstanding here, apparently. A helmet or shield is an "armor accessory" in EP: an addon to normal armor which allows you to add more armor points. A light helmet is open, while a full helmet latches on and provides an environmental seal with 12 hours of air supply that will protect you against gases...It's not a vacsuit. Hasn't got the pressure/insulative/temp regulating properties. No amount of adding helmets will make your armor into a vacsuit any more than a modern riot cop or a soldier in MOPP gear has a vacsuit. It's just armor with a heavier helmet/bonus gas protection...Although I suppose you could use it as SCUBA for purposes of diving into a non-toxic liquid. A vacsuit, on the other hand, is a sealed system with pressure and temperature protection that doesn't require the purchase of anything else.

Upgraded Smart Vac Clothing with armor characteristics is probably the most "convenient" choice for a vacsuit for most of EP, but for Gatecrashing you will probably want something heavier, like a Standard Vacsuit, both for the additional armor and for the Maker and additional sensors, or go completely nuts and bring a Hardsuit.

EDIT: I swear to God, I hate the fact that critical means rolling doubles.  It means that if you want to maximize your skills, you end up having a whole bunch of weird-ass numbers all over your character sheet.

Eh. Doesn't affect me any more than having oddball numbers in D&D/PF when min-maxing. It's just the nature of the system. After a while it becomes almost second nature.

[ReijiTabibito]

Some misunderstanding here, apparently. A helmet or shield is an "armor accessory" in EP: an addon to normal armor which allows you to add more armor points. A light helmet is open, while a full helmet latches on and provides an environmental seal with 12 hours of air supply that will protect you against gases...It's not a vacsuit. Hasn't got the pressure/insulative/temp regulating properties. No amount of adding helmets will make your armor into a vacsuit any more than a modern riot cop or a soldier in MOPP gear has a vacsuit. It's just armor with a heavier helmet/bonus gas protection...Although I suppose you could use it as SCUBA for purposes of diving into a non-toxic liquid. A vacsuit, on the other hand, is a sealed system with pressure and temperature protection that doesn't require the purchase of anything else.

Right, yeah, it mentions that only full helmets provide an environmental seal.  Though, it mentions that Heavy Body Armor also provides a seal...so, in theory it's possible to pair up a Full Helmet and Heavy Body Armor to get a full seal, but at the lack of the stuff a Vacsuit comes with.

As an art question, a vacsuit is that thing the unfortunate guy escaping from the space station is wearing, right?

Upgraded Smart Vac Clothing with armor characteristics is probably the most "convenient" choice for a vacsuit for most of EP, but for Gatecrashing you will probably want something heavier, like a Standard Vacsuit, both for the additional armor and for the Maker and additional sensors, or go completely nuts and bring a Hardsuit.

The problem is a Vacsuit tends to have a lesser AR compared to some of the other options - and if you're a Synth, you can just get the various armor shells added onto your frame.

I would prefer a Crasher Suit, but at a cost of Expensive...

Eh. Doesn't affect me any more than having oddball numbers in D&D/PF when min-maxing. It's just the nature of the system. After a while it becomes almost second nature.

Yeah, but in 3.5/PF, there aren't criticals for skills - and where there are, it's 1 or 20.

Maybe it's just me being OCD and wanting everything to start out with nice numbers that end in 5 or 0.

[ChaoticSky]

Do *not* bring a Hardsuit, its basically a modern space suit+100 years or so, its like bubble-boy with encased limbs flailing around. XD

If your looking for the best, then the ideal suit would be (shock) the Crasher Suit (as in Gate Crashing, not the Crash Suit, which is for taking a swan dive from orbit). Its a Standard Smart Vac Suit with additional armour, the hands are reinforced for beating the shit out of that one idiot who keeps yelling "Marco!' on a unknown exoplanet, and a few other things.

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

Right, yeah, it mentions that only full helmets provide an environmental seal.  Though, it mentions that Heavy Body Armor also provides a seal...so, in theory it's possible to pair up a Full Helmet and Heavy Body Armor to get a full seal, but at the lack of the stuff a Vacsuit comes with.

Except you don't have the pressure-adjustment smart materials mentioned under the entry on vacsuits. Nothing is stopping you from wearing body armor over a smart or light vacsuit if it's tailored appropriately.

As an art question, a vacsuit is that thing the unfortunate guy escaping from the space station is wearing, right?

Or it could be a synth? There are lots of things in the art which are more likely to be vacsuits, particularly in GC.

The problem is a Vacsuit tends to have a lesser AR compared to some of the other options - and if you're a Synth, you can just get the various armor shells added onto your frame.

I would prefer a Crasher Suit, but at a cost of Expensive...

Or go for a Hardsuit with Faraday options.

Yeah, but in 3.5/PF, there aren't criticals for skills - and where there are, it's 1 or 20.

Maybe it's just me being OCD and wanting everything to start out with nice numbers that end in 5 or 0.

You and your crazy decimal obsession. (Secretly wishes all of the numbers were more evenly allocated in base-8.)

[ChaoticSky]

(Secretly wishes all of the numbers were more evenly allocated in base-8.)

base 16 is where the cool kids are. vivalahexa!

[ReijiTabibito]

Except you don't have the pressure-adjustment smart materials mentioned under the entry on vacsuits. Nothing is stopping you from wearing body armor over a smart or light vacsuit if it's tailored appropriately.

Is that possible?  I always took it that you couldn't stack armor unless it was with Smart Skin or Second Skin - besides, wouldn't that complicate some mods?  Like the Chameleon Coating.

You and your crazy decimal obsession. (Secretly wishes all of the numbers were more evenly allocated in base-8.)

The good news is that after the initial setup, I have no problems with weird numbers.  Just when I'm getting it set up.  And base 8?  I thought my compulsions were odd...

[Angie]

Ummm...I know I should probably learn this from reading the main book, but...would any of you kind Egos like to educate a poor young Infolife on why we need vacsuits in the first place?

[CarnivalOfTheGoat]

For starters, we're going to an environment with a Halon atmosphere which has been known to forcibly decompress itself to blow explorers not just "into deep space" but "into deep space on the event horizon of a black hole."

A vac suit won't save you from the eater-of-all-energies, but it'll at least mean you won't die horribly in a Halon atmosphere.

And that brings up another point. Blythe, you said that our first destination was Penrose. As the primary information in GC is notes from a semi-public symposium which is lobbying to shut down travel to Penrose, I would presume that information is readily available to the team?

Because if that's the case, people should probably consider their loadouts carefully. We'll be operating out of an autonomous colony, so you'll probably be able to trade/finagle different equipment after the first trip. No reason not to prepare specifically for where you're going...

Except that sometimes gates don't send you where you're supposed to go. There's at least one account in GC of a posthuman who expected to go through a gate into a breathable environment and ended up in hard vacuum, barely surviving to make it back through the gate to home.

And I imagine that answers the question about vacsuits. At least for biomorphs.

But even in normal EP terms, if we weren't gatecrashing, most transhumans have vacsuits because they exist in breachable environments. Particularly in the outsystem. It's nice to be able to crank a helmet and gloves on (or, if you have smarter material as part of your suit, to just activate it to grow your helmet and gloves) and be able to survive when there's a major blowout due to accident, natural disaster, or hostile action. Additionally high-end vacsuits have various other facilities (Specs, AR, Makers) which can be useful to have around.

Or you can just go with a synth-morph and fear (almost) no environment. And worry about being hacked or running into superacids or bacteria which find synthetic materials tasty.

Is that possible?  I always took it that you couldn't stack armor unless it was with Smart Skin or Second Skin - besides, wouldn't that complicate some mods?  Like the Chameleon Coating.

I was referring to stacking on mods such as additional ablative patches, CC, etc.

[Blythe]

Hey, all, I'm sorry to do this, but I'm honestly overwhelmed trying to get this all set up. RL's being a pain right now, and I just won't be able to manage the micro-levels of setting detail for this game.

When RL is a bit better for me, I'll consider attempting to run this again, possibly in a few months.

Many apologies.